September 2017: Quarterly Update from the NeTS program (3Q 2017)

Post date: Oct 19, 2017 8:25:50 PM

NeTS Program Updates:

Relocation: NSF is moving a new location in Alexandria in September 2017. The NeTS program team is relocating during Sept 7 – 11. Our new address is 2415 Eisenhower Ave, Alexandria, VA 22314, and is conveniently located only three metro stops (10 minutes) away from Washington Reagan (DCA) airport.

Annual Reports: If you have any reports that will become due before September 30th, please submit them right away (it is within the 3 month window). You or your colleagues might be affected by your overdue reports as our grants office tries to process award actions before September 30th. Hence, it is important for you to submit your annual and final reports on time. Remember: Annual reports become due within 3 months of the anniversary of the award, and become overdue the day after.

Recruitment: If you are interested in serving as a Program Officer for the NeTS or SaTC programs, please let us know immediately. If you would like to serve at some time in the future, then let us know as well.

Public Access: The Public Access requirement for journal publications and juried conference papers went into effect in January 2016. This requirement applies to awards made on or after the January 2016 effective date. To deposit the required items in the NSF Public Access Repository (NSF-PAR) and to link them to the award(s), go research.gov and follow the instructions under “Awards & Reporting”. Metadata for deposited items will be automatically populated in the associated annual and final reports. For more information about the Public Access requirement, FAQs, and a training video, see the “Public Access” section of the “About Services” on Research.gov. You can link to these documents from your website as well to encourage greater sharing of these outcomes.

Key Announcements:

1. NeTS proposals submitted to the 2017 Core Program had a 20% success rate on average across the Small and Medium Competitions. (We do not assess trends for Large proposals due to the small number of proposals submitted.)

2. NeTS Core program solicitation has been released. See link for details. Medium and Large proposals are due by Sept 27, 2017 and Small proposals are due by November 15, 2017. Proposers are requested to suggest potential non-conflicted reviewers as part of their proposal (in the 'Suggested Reviewers' fields) - we may not necessarily use them but it adds to our pool of reviewers and gives a sense of areas of expertise expected, especially for multi-disciplinary problems.

3. NSF-Japan JUNO2 solicitation is seeking proposals on enabling trustworthy networks supporting the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). The two thrust areas are: (a) Trustworthy IoT/CPS Networking and (b) Trustworthy Optical Communications and Networking. Full proposal deadline is November 30, 2017, and requires a partner from Japanese institutions.

4. US-Israel joint announcement: A Dear Colleague Letter has been issued on Guidelines for Submitting Collaborative Proposals under National Science Foundation (NSF) and US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) Collaborative Research Opportunities agreement. See https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17120/nsf17120.jsp for details.

5. Announcement regarding Hurricane Harvey: A Dear Colleague Letter has been issued announcing potential funding opportunities for research that relates to the causes and effects of this recent disaster. For details, see https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17128/nsf17128.jsp

Upcoming NSF Workshops (in March 2017 – July 2017 timeframe):

1. Large Scale Networking (LSN) Operationalizing SDN Workshop Date: Sept. 18-20, 2017, Washington DC

If you are interested in participation, check out http://ccit.clemson.edu/research/nsf-nitrd-sdn-workshop/

2. Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC) & NSF Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI) PI meeting

Date: Oct. 3-4, 2017 Albuquerque, NM

http://www.thequilt.net/public-event/2017-pi-workshop/

Other Significant Announcements of relevance to NeTS:

FCC has issued a new Notice of Intent seeking comments on opening up new spectrum bands for broadband communications uses. The main focus is on spectrum between 3.7 Ghz – 24 Ghz, with special focus on 1.7 Ghz in the spectrum sweet-spot. This can have enormous impact on the deployment of wireless broadband services, with shared use being the likely scenario (and hence many outcomes of our investments in this space could be applied). Valuable insights and comments from the NeTS research community are requested on the types of uses and possible sharing models that these bands could support. For details on the bands under consideration, see https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-17-104A1.pdf

FCC is trying to revamp $600 million per year in subsidies for broadband deployment for under-served areas. See http://www.cetusnews.com/news/FCC-Revamps-Programs-to-Bridge--Rural-Digital-Divide.HJlPWdmbPZ.html for details. Comments are being welcomed from the public.

FCC has announced its experimental spectrum program license process, designed to allow experimenters gain access to large swaths of spectrum for experimental purposes with minimal effort. If you are a wireless researcher interested in novel uses for wireless spectrum, start thinking about what you might want to request. Visit https://www.fcc.gov/document/oet-announces-acceptance-applications-program-licenses for further details. This is a major announcement for anyone interested in working on any swath of wireless spectrum, so we humbly request such researchers to become aware of the specifics of this program.

DARPA has announced a new program on Radio Frequency Spectrum + Machine Learning (RFMLS). This dovetails with growing community interest in using BigData and Machine Learning techniques for improving network intelligence in both wired and wireless domains. Submission deadline of October 10, 2017. For details, see https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2017-08-11a

DARPA has announced a series of Software Defined Radio (SDR) Hackfests (https://darpahackfest.com), designed as a way for DARPA to collaborate with a larger community of interested engineers and scientists working towards the future confluence of radio and information technology. Each Hackfest is open to anyone and typically comprises three parts: a speaker series, a hacker space, and the Hackfest Missions.

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